GETTING STARTED WITH NATIVE PLANTS

A Look at the Brandywine's Approach to the Landscape

Throughout the Brandywine's campus in Chadds Ford, visitors encounter beautiful gardens featuring wildflowers and plants that are native to this region. These gardens serve as a living representation of the organization's mission to preserving and promoting both art and the environment. Beyond their aesthetic value, native plants provide many ecological benefits—they are more sustainable, require less water, filter pollutants from stormwater, mitigate soil erosion and provide critical food and habitat for local wildlife. In the following article, learn more about the evolution of the Brandywine's garden program and why you should consider using native plants in your own landscape.

When the Brandywine Museum of Art first opened its doors to the public in 1971, the landscape that greeted visitors consisted of a rather meager display of non-native, conventional landscape plants. There were espaliered crab apple trees and low-growing shrubs from China, complemented with oil-filled tiki lamps flanking both sides of the entrance walk to help visitors find their way after sundown. Just a few years later, in 1974, the overall design of the campus landscape shifted in approach to focus on plants that were indigenous to the area. So much of the artwork created in the Brandywine Valley and on view in the Museum had been inspired by the regional landscape— and with native plants providing a substantial portion of that inspiration, it quickly became a natural fit to start incorporating these plants into the campus landscape.

As native plant species are, and always will be, inseparable components of both the visual and ecological integrity of this region (as they are within all other regions), they were the perfect choice for physically representing the sensibilities of an organization devoted to preserving, protecting and sharing the natural and cultural history of the Brandywine Valley.

Why Native Plants?

By simple definition, native plant species are those that have inhabited a specific geographic region for many thousands of years. Through the process of evolution, they have become increasingly better at thriving within the environmental factors that summarize the region in which they grow. Without any additional assistance, these plants have successfully adapted to local growing conditions and soil types and more easily survive the seasonal patterns of rainfall, flooding, drought, humidity and temperature extremes. Once established, they typically do not require supplemental water or fertilizer.

For a myriad of reasons, native plants have also become co-dependent with the region’s wildlife. Every living creature directly or indirectly derives its life from plants—and, typically, not just any plants will do. Monarch caterpillars, for example, have an essential need for milkweed plants or they will not survive. Other species of pollinators also have similar requirements with different plants. Using native plants in the Brandywine’s designed landscapes directly fulfills wildlife needs while also involving less human intervention and maintenance than is often required with non-native plants that have evolved within other ecosystems.

Making the Switch

While the choice to use native plants on the Brandywine’s campus was a logical decision, implementing them into the landscape posed numerous logistical challenges. In the mid 1970s, commercial availability of native plants was extremely limited. Those that were available had typically been removed from their wild locations, put into pots and held in nurseries for a period of time, so that proprietors could claim their plants were “nursery grown.” Many of those plants did not survive the transition into the ground.

For a fledgling organization with the right scruples and limited resources, one solution was to propagate plants from locally collected seeds. For example, the much beloved display of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)—or “Brandywine Bluebells,” as we like to call them—that occurs every spring around the Museum originated with a collection of seeds taken from wild populations growing along the Brandywine Creek. But to successfully collect those seeds meant learning everything about the process. What did these seeds look like? When were they ripe? How did one collect them in a practical manner?

And how were they best cleaned and then stored to keep them alive? It also took some time for staff to learn how to get collected seeds to germinate predictably and then to figure out how to best manage and grow out seedlings until they were large enough to be planted into display areas.

From Seed to Sale

After much trial, error and refinement during those early years, the Brandywine now has a thriving seed collection and propagation program. Today the campus gardens feature approximately 400 native plant species that provide a succession of bloom from early spring through the first killing frost. These efforts also culminated in the organization’s first-ever public native plant sale in 1982, held over Mother’s Day weekend at the Museum—which has continued annually into the present day. While the offerings were slim that first year, the sale has progressively grown in size over the decades—expanding last year to over 250 different plant species offered, including trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses and flowering herbaceous plants.

Staff and volunteers also collect and clean seeds of about 125 different native species on campus that are then offered for sale year-round to homeowners, research scientists, landscape restorationists and commercial plant nurseries. With ever-expanding public awareness of their importance, the private and commercial demand for regional native plants and their seeds continues to grow at an encouraging pace— far in excess of what the Brandywine’s seed program can supply each year.

For nearly five decades, the Brandywine has utilized its Wildflower and Native Plant Gardens program to promote the appreciation, use and preservation of our regions’ native plants—both honoring the visual character of the Brandywine Valley and strengthening its ecological integrity. This unique contribution to the organization’s mission has been made possible through the orchestrated and combined efforts of its earnest, inspired and dedicated garden volunteers.

No matter the season, we hope you take some time to notice, enjoy and appreciate the Brandywine’s gardens during your next visit. n

LEARN MORE ABOUT NATIVE PLANTS:

Throughout the year, don't miss the Brandywine's ongoing series of native plant programs—including virtual and in-person offerings—focused on providing tips, tricks and further education on how to incorporate native plants into your own landscape. See what's coming up next at www.brandywine.org/events